The Shadow Economy and Morals: A Note

If the established rules are obeyed spontaneously in an economy, this increases economic efficiency since the uncertainties, monitoring costs and incentive problems induced by opportunism can be avoided. Opportunism will be increasedby increasing the incentives for unlawful behaviour, however, and a slight increase in these incentives might cause a cumulative and self-nourishing breakdown of morals. The dangers of the growing shadow economy are louring here

Distributional Orderings: An Approach with Seven Flavours

We examine individuals' distributional orderings in a number of contexts. This is done by using a questionnaire-experiment that is presented to respondents in any one of seven "flavours" or interpretations of the basic distributional problem. The flavours include inequality, risk, social welfare and justice. The issue of personal involvement in the distributional comparison is explicitly addressed.social welfare, inequality, justice, risk, questionnaire experiments.

A response to a letter from David Perkins concerning the question of whether nt mutants involve tryptophan pyrrolase

A response to a letter from David Perkins concerning the question of whether nt mutants involve tryptophan pyrrolas

To Be or not To Be Involved:A Questionnaire-Experimental View on Harsanyi’sUtilitarian Ethics

According to standard theory founded on Harsanyi (1953, 1955) a social welfarefunction can be appropriately based on the individual's approach to choice underuncertainty. We investigate whether people really do rank distributions according tothe same principles irrespective of whether the comparison involves money payoffs ina risky situation or the distribution of income among persons. We use a questionnaireexperiment to focus on the two different interpretations of the Harsanyi approach.There are important, systematic differences that transcend the cultural background ofrespondents.Impartial observer theorem, utilitarianism, welfare.

lnstructions to the Weak and the Strong According to Romans 14

Eternal vigilance is the price of Christian liberty which was restored to Christendom through the Lutheran Reformation. Legalism and license always have been and still are the implacable foes of Christian liberty and ultimately of the Gospel itself. Since the Apostolic days church history is replete with instances where entire church bodies fell victim to one or the other. And the pity is that only too frequently matters of indifference, so-called adiaphora, served as the starting point from which either legalism or license sabotaged the priceless boon of Christian liberty. The Lutheran Church must therefore guard with especial care its great heritage of the proper distinction between Law and Gospel if it would retain its liberty

Investigating Metal-Mediated DNA Damage Prevention by Antioxidants and Examining the Role of Metals in Fluconazole-Mediated DNA Damage

Reactive oxygen species (ROS) play an important role in the development of many diseases. Common assays to test the ability of hydrophobic compounds to prevent oxidative stress are radical scavenging assays and cell studies. However, these radical assays often do not accurately reflect biological outcomes, and the use of different cell lines limits the ability to directly compare compound efficacy (Chapter 1). Results from DNA damage prevention assays can directly compare antioxidant efficacy, but these assays have been limited to water-soluble compounds. Chapter 2 discusses the first assay that quantifiably evaluates the ability of hydrophobic compounds to prevent metal-mediated DNA damage inhibition via gel electrophoresis. This assay allows biologically relevant evaluation of compounds for their effectiveness under consistent conditions. The glutathione peroxidase mimic ebselen and its derivatives prevent copper-mediated DNA damage (IC50 values 280-450 µM), but do not significantly inhibit iron-mediated DNA damage. In combination with radical scavenging assays, these biologically relevant assays enable identification of structure-function relationships for hydrophobic antioxidant compounds and drugs. Studies presented in Chapter 3 investigate the effect of metal binding on drug properties. Fluconazole (FLC) binds both iron and copper, and stabilizes Cu+ and Fe2+ over Cu2+ and Fe3+, respectively, as measured by cyclic voltammetry. Using gel electrophoresis assays, the effects of FLC on copper- and iron-mediated DNA damage were determined. FLC does not cause DNA damage by itself, but addition of FLC lowers the concentration of Fe2+ or Cu+ needed to cause 50% DNA damage (EC50) by 50 and 40 %, respectively, increasing reactive oxygen species production. The studies described in Chapter 4 investigate the antioxidant capabilities of a series of plant-derived, procyanidin-rich condensed tannins (CTs) with different structural features for their ability to inhibit copper (IC50 162.5 ± 0.3 µM to 27% DNA damage inhibition at the highest concentration) and iron-mediated (IC50 0.75 ± 0.01 to 4.96 ± 0.01 µM) DNA damage. The activity of CTs are compared to six commercially available polyphenolic compounds. This is the first study to investigate structure-activity relationships for CTs and their abilities to prevent metal-mediated DNA damage

Editorial

Responsibility, Purity, and Humility Go and Make Disciple